A NEW BEAVER WORLD IN SQUAMISH BC

I’ve been feeling lately like we’re getting to be in a new world. That my old fashioned concerns about cities losing patience with beavers are quaint, like an old hippie in a Volkswagon bus complaining about “the man“. It’s a new age for beavers. A whole new age. And it’s might be time for people to start patting my head and saying condescendingly, “Okay beaver boomer we got things from here.”

Just check out THIS article. I was sure it was from Washington state at first. But Squamish is in British Columbia.

Dam good news: Why Squamish needs beavers

Have you spotted a beaver dam around Squamish?

At first, one might think, “Oh no, is that going to be a problem?” But actually, it’s pretty exciting.

While beavers sometimes get a bad reputation for disrupting urban spaces, experts say their presence is actually a great sign for the health of our local ecosystems.

Jennifer Rae Pierce, an expert in urban wildlife and biodiversity, has studied beaver populations and their role in city environments. In a recent conversation with The Squamish Chief, she explained how beavers are a keystone species, meaning their activities help sustain a rich, biodiverse ecosystem.

“They create environments that support a wide range of species and contribute to resilient ecosystems,” Pierce said. “Beavers help store water in the land, which is especially crucial for drought management. They also support fish populations and enhance water quality in many cases.”

Wait. What? An urban wildlife specialist that promotes beavers and isn’t me? An I dreaming? Who is this woman?

Jennifer is a political ecologist, urban planner, and urban biodiversity policy specialist with 18 years of experience with cities and nature. She is the co-founder of Urban Biodiversity Hub (UBHub)

Urban bioiversity Hub. I like the sound of that. Do you think she ever heard of Martinez?

Living with beavers

Of course, living alongside beavers isn’t always easy.

They cut down trees and flood certain areas, which is why some landowners want them removed. But according to Pierce, relocating them doesn’t really work.

“The habitat is what attracts beavers,” Pierce said.

“Even if you remove them, more will come unless the environment is changed. Also, beaver relocation is costly and difficult because finding suitable, unoccupied habitat is rare. Beavers are territorial and will struggle to establish themselves in a new place.”

So instead of removing them, Pierce recommended simple solutions like installing water flow devices (also called “beaver baffles”).

These help maintain controlled water levels without disrupting beaver habitats.

Worried about your favourite tree? There’s an easy fix.

“If people are concerned about trees being cut down, they can wrap wire mesh around them or use a paint mixed with sand, which discourages beavers from chewing on them,” Pierce added.

Boom! Beavers help biodiversity in cities and even if they cause an issue it is better to fix it and here are some easy tools to do so.

I am very close to retirement. Or as they say in the UK about layoffs “Being made redundant“, Wow.

Pierce believes locals should embrace beavers instead of seeing them as a nuisance.

“People can show their support by engaging with local authorities and property owners,” she said. “Decision-makers sometimes assume the public is against beavers when, in reality, many people love seeing them and appreciate their ecological benefits.”

Some communities in Metro Vancouver have already stepped up, preventing beaver relocations through activism and education.

For Pierce, one fun way is through storytelling and social media.

“Some places have given their beavers names and even [X] accounts,” Pierce said with a laugh. “It helps people connect with them and see them as part of the community.”

Okay admit it, You think I secretly wrote this article and made up Ms Pierce. I almost do myself. But no, its legit. I swear on a stack of beavers. That’s just the world we live in now.

Want to spot some beavers? Head to the wetlands around the Squamish River, Alice Lake Provincial Park, or the Mamquam River.

It maybe time for this beaver boomer to hang up her worry beads.

JIM LEHRER’S GHOST BELIEVES IN BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers February 8, 2025

If you were watching PBS news hour thursday night you might have seen something amazing. Of course there was the usual segment about climate change, but this was slightly more cheerful than fires in LA or evaporation in the North.

Why engineers are turning to beavers for insights into managing water resources

Beavers and the dams they build are not always embraced in the areas where they do their work. But there’s a growing recognition that they also are building a kind of natural infrastructure that helps with water management and the climate. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien went to see the beavers at work during their busy season and has the story for our ongoing coverage of Tipping Points.

Sure it’s persuasive to your average PBS donor to have a spunky hydrologist measuring silt and flying drones at a beaver pond, but if you ask me the real magic comes at the end when a man on a horse says that beavers improve his “Crick” and make grass for his cattle.

“VIRTUALLY” NO BEAVER CAN BE TRUSTED IN WI

heidi08 Beavers February 7, 2025

I went through several mood swings reading this article yesterday. I thought I should bring you along for the ride. First the headline and the location brought me a burst of hopeful joy because Wisconsin is a place that thinks beavers ruin streams for fish and regularly blows up dams. They also think there are more of them now than in the fur trade, So lets just say they have lots of room to grow.

Opting for coexistence: Some Wisconsin landowners learn to live with beavers

Beavers can cause property damage, but research shows they positively impact the environment. Some landowners are ditching traps and dynamite to peacefully manage the nuisance.

Katie McCullough loved Arizona winters, but hot summers could be a drag. During the pandemic summer of 2020, she once again loaded her RV and found respite in Dane County public parks. Why not make Wisconsin a half-year thing, she thought, with space for her and the pups?

She soon met the neighbors — about 10 furry lodge dwellers. McCullough realized she had a beaver problem.

A growing chorus of advocates and ecological consultants are popularizing flow control devices, a solution to beaver flooding problems. They limit beavers’ damming behavior and reduce impacts on human infrastructure.

Hand-constructed with flexible plastic pipes and wire fencing, several types exist: pond levelers, culvert fences and decoy dams. Some bear trademarks like Beaver Deceiver and Castor Master.

They aim to reduce the desirability of potential dam sites, redirect beavers’ attention or “sneak” pond water away without attracting their notice. And they aren’t terribly common in Wisconsin.

I got so excited when I read this! Beaver dams in Wisconsin getting a flow device instead of being blown to smithereens!

I felt hopeful and kept reading.

Modern devices control water height using a flexible plastic tube resting on a pond’s bottom. A cage surrounds the intake and prevents beavers from swimming close enough to detect flowing water, which researchers believe triggers their building itch. The other end of the tube passes through the dam, forming a permanent leak.

Installers say levelers, which cost $2,000 to $4,000, function for about 10 years, and annual maintenance takes less than an hour. They can modify setups to accommodate fish passage, narrow and shallow streams, large ponds and downstream beaver dams.

“No two beaver situations are the same,” said Massachusetts-based Beaver Solutions owner Mike Callahan, who has installed more than 2,000 flow devices and trains consultants. “The best solutions obviously are going to be ones that work for the beavers and that work for us.”

Wisconsin residents have constructed beaver pond levelers, as have the Department of Natural Resources and USDA. But state natural resources staff say they rarely receive inquiries.

Despite their simple design, obtaining state authorization to install a flow device often takes longer than other activities like small-scale dredging and riprap installation because Wisconsin lacks a standard pond leveler permit.

Okay, I’m glad you called Mike and spoke to him directly. Things are looking up.

A department staff member told McCullough’s contractor and restoration ecologist Clay Frazer — who has overseen multiple beaver-related projects in Wisconsin like mock beaver dams — that many landowners opt not to install them after learning of the challenges.

Hiring a consultant to navigate the process can be cost-prohibitive. McCullough’s bill exceeded $10,000, but a grant offset it.

Proponents say the meaty requirements usher landowners toward a lethal resolution, which Wisconsin’s beaver trapping rules seemingly favor.

Scientists have conducted virtually no peer-reviewed research evaluating the effectiveness of flow devices.

Virtually No Peer Reviewed studies? Of course there are. Glynnis study in 2018 was high quality and very substantial. So I tracked down the author and sent him a copy. And guess what he said?

Right I could only find ONE, So I wrote “Virtually”

Really? Is that what virtually means to you? I guess You could just have easily said that she had “Virtually no families of beavers on her property”. Or maybe that there were “Virtually” no reporters researching this article.”

Mind you he only found one study from 1922 on the Baileys invention. And only one woman who had tried this in her garden. And he didn’t his title his article

“In Wisconsin virtually no one tries coexistence“.

I can’t decide how frustrated to be with this article. On the one hand it is pretty good for the region and progress is progress,. On the other hand its soooooooo irritating. How many peer reviewed studies did he find of flow devices failing?

That would be none. Because when your second cousin Vernon told your neighbor Bob says its true you don’t need to do a study on it.

AmIright?

BEAVER ON THE HILL FOR YOU AND ME

heidi08 Beavers February 6, 2025

The Beaver Institute released yesterday 40 hours of material from beaverCon 2 this year in October. If you like me were unable to attend you might want to tune in. Even if you were there in person you might have heard things so profound or shocking you want to hear them again. Now is your chance.

I started here.

BETTER BIOTOPE BUILT BY BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers February 5, 2025

This lovely headline has been making the news in the past couple days. I’ve seen it in Europe and the US. And for obvious reasons. Everyone likes to make fun of policies and permits.

In the Czech Republic, beavers built a dam in two days, a construction that was planned for years.

Beavers built a dam in the Czech Republic in two days, which local authorities had spent 7 years planning. The animals saved 1.2 million dollars on the territory restoration project. This is reported by the publication Money.pl.

It is noted that beavers built several dams and returned the area, where construction was planned, to its natural wetland state. The administration of the protected area planned a reconstruction and already had permits, but the animals did it themselves – and in a very short Time.

Yep that sounds like beavers. Working hard and working smart. Well not smart necessarily but not wasting their time doing something that doesn’t work.

Moreover, beavers chose the perfect place for building the dams – a drainage canal that the military built on a former training ground to dry the area. The restoration project envisaged returning everything to its previous state, but now there is no need to carry out this work.

The beavers created the necessary biotope conditions practically overnight. The Military Forestry Directorate and the Vltava River Basin had been negotiating the implementation of the project and resolving land ownership issues. The beavers surpassed them, saving us 30 million korunas. They built the dams without any project documentation and at no cost – Fišer told Radio Prague International.

Biotope? “A biotope is a region with consistent environmental conditions that provides a home for a specific community of plants and animals. The term is similar to “habitat”, which is more commonly used in English.”

OOOHHHHHH.

Zoologist Jiří Vlček added that the local administration cannot compete with such beaver activities. Beavers can build a dam in one or two nights. Meanwhile, people have to obtain construction permits, approve a building project, and find the money for it, Vlček noted.

Ecologists who monitored the entire situation emphasize that the beavers’ actions have significantly improved environmental conditions. The wetlands and water pools they create will serve as excellent habitats for rare species such as stone crayfish, frogs, and other organisms that thrive in wetlands.

I love that stories like this flurry over the airwaves. Yes the real subtext is that mean permits take too long and we should let our workers work better.

But the effect is that beavers rock.

And they do.